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77
with the object of doing away with conditions which provide the rat with shelter and
suitable nesting places.
(b) Efforts to catch or kill rats which have infested premises by means of
traps, poisons, varnish, or by the use of suitable animals.
(3) In the presence of the black rat and its capacity for climbing, preventive
measures against ingress are not to be limited to the ground floor, but extend to the
highest floor of a building. These rats may enter buildings by travelling along telephone
cables.
If the methods indicated are diligently pursued, rats can be very largely reduced in
numbers, but the experience of Copenhagen tends to shew that even if, with such
measures, there be combined rewards for rats killed (which apparently would encourage
a large number of persons to be rat-catchers), the reduction can only reach a certain
limit. If energies are relaxed, the rat being very prolific, the previous maximum, dependent
upon the means of subsistence, will again rapidly be reached.
L